Christian Harrison

Professor Rob Cohen

ENG-111

11/28/2021

1984

“Land of the freeeee and the home braaaaaave” as eloquently written in the star spangled

banner the national anthem for the great United States of America, but what is being truly free do

you know? Or do you know the freedom they let you have. In the novel 1984 author George

Orwell writes of times and places in a totalitarian society where you were only free as the

Party(government) let you be and if you didn’t “love big brother” then you might just have a

problem. But what comparison does this draw to the modern world we reside in today. We are so

liberated and technologically advanced and able to be the people we think are the best form of

our “true” selves. But if your true self is the person you had envisioned from someone you saw

on TV or Instagram or even TikTok, Is that really you?

Orwell carefully implants his personal thoughts and feelings into the character Winston

Smith and allows himself to speak consciously through him in this novel. As Winston is

explaining what is really happening and the narrator allows insight to how they are listening to

you through the telescreens Orwell writes “There was of course no way of knowing whether you

were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police

plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched

everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to.

You had to live—did live, from habit that became instinct—in the assumption that every sound

you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.”(Orwell 5)
Christian Harrison

Professor Rob Cohen

ENG-111

11/28/2021

This quote implies that there was no escape from the evil master plan being formulated by the

Party, able to completely and utterly control the thoughts of its patrons; this draws a huge

comparison to the life we are living in the year 2021. As the mass media becomes bigger and

bigger and more accessible to our personal lives and becomes a part of everything we do on a

daily basis from having Alexas in every room and 2-3 personal devices and “smart” this and

“smart” that. But if you truly think about it we may have it worse than the characters in 1984

because the “Party” is already highly upfront about their intentions and the ways they will carry

them out but in modern society we float aimlessly through life with delusions of true freedom.

We allow the “capitalist government” to know everything about us for the ludicrous

extravagance of an efficient life, a quote on quote better life. A man by the name of Edward

Joseph Snowden was a employee of the CIA and NSA, and Mr. Snowden decided that enough

was enough and came out and told the world about the twisted truth of the agenda of the higher

government and just like with telescreens the party implemented they were listening to your

every word through your cellular devices and even when they were off “Big Brother” was

listening; Big Brother being the US government. Now Orwell had Winston captured and he

brainwashed by the party and they tortured him until he broke and in todays world that might be

a little harsh for someone of no importance.

The social dilemma directed by Jeff Orlowski brought our attention to the amount of

media we pour out information into and how we freely give away all aspects of our personal

lives to become closer to certain friends or to find entertainment. In one scene of the film the

former president of facebook and pinterest was exposing the extent of the control they had of
Christian Harrison

Professor Rob Cohen

ENG-111

11/28/2021

their users data. He said “I talked about having those on dials as needed and we talked about

letting Mark have those dials. This quote is speaking of Mark Zuckerberg founder and CEO of

the revolutionary company and social platform facebook. As of right now Facebook owns

Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, Messenger, Onavo, FriendFeed, Ascenta, LiveRail, Giphy and

Mapillary under the name Meta platforms. Speaking of facebook Mr. Zuckerberg was just under

some harsh scrutiny from the public for willingly admitting he knew that he was taking users

data and selling it to all types of shady characters to target advertisements and other things.

These companies have three main goals as listed in Social Dilemma which is to Engage, Grow

and Advertise. These to companies sell the information from the things you may enter about

yourself into the posts in search engines and even things that you may say while near your device

and the show ads of things the algorithm think you may like to make you more incline buy the

product, sign up for the service or just so you keep using their application.

Some may say this is right for the ease of convenience in life and they are collecting your

data for the purpose and efficiency and allowing you to get the things you need easier and

helping live a more fulfilling life that's beautiful to lead. The employees of said companies may

offer you advice saying that the terms and conditions were clearly laid out and stated all the

intentions the company had when you signed up and if you don't like what's being done you

should have read the fine print and not signed up. It is not their fault that you didn't understand

because you checked the box that lawfully says you did understand.

Furthermore I believe that Orwell was very close in amalgamation of the world's future.

There are a lot of comparisons between now and what he wrote about in the novel 1984. Now
Christian Harrison

Professor Rob Cohen

ENG-111

11/28/2021

there were points in the text were the two reality split paths especially with the ophysicslly

torture and the harsh brainwashing that Winston Smith experienced while living in the dreaded

city of london in the year 1984. But recent research shows that the modern day brainwashing

comes in the form of social media and how they implant ideas into your head using targeted ads

and media platforms and absorb all your personal information. But efficiency and inclusion may

be the price. Because we all “LOVE BIG BROTHER”